


Survival of the Fittest

by HeWhoIsMany



Category: Ring Fit Adventure (Video Game), The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Gen, Gender or Sex Swap, Transformation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-19
Updated: 2020-08-19
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:41:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25986061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeWhoIsMany/pseuds/HeWhoIsMany
Summary: Link's Master Sword is replaced in the night by a certain other magical artifact. Ring doesn't seem to recognize the change in master, though, and tries to make Link fit his expectations better.
Kudos: 6





	Survival of the Fittest

In the several months since waking up at the Shrine of Resurrection, Link had gone through a lot, to say the absolute least. Waking up in a strange place with no memories, learning he was living in a literally Blighted wasteland, discovering that many were putting all their hopes on him to save them. So far, he’d yet to travel to tackle any of the giant ancient robots that were causing people problems.

It wasn’t like Link was never going to get to them! He’d just gotten a little...distracted...

It had all started with the towers. Those damn towers. No matter how much Link had initially tried to ignore them, he couldn’t stand all the blank areas on his map. Which was why, telling himself each time this would be the last one and he’d go back on track when he was done, Link would climb a tower. Then, a new portion of the map filled, he would see another tower in the distance, and repeat the cycle once more.

By the time all the towers were climbed, Link had pinned the locations for more than a dozen Shrines he’d found along the way. Even after clearing those Shrines, Link had talked to quite a few people, and a lot of them needed help with things! One of those little journeys had taken him close to a large forest, and in the center Link had found the Master Sword! It had hurt like hell being drawn out, but the sword had been completely invaluable. After all, unlike the rest of the swords he found, it didn’t break! It ran out of energy, sure, but that was very different.

With his recently acquired magic sword, Link was finally making his way towards the Zora’s, thinking they’d be the best people to help out first. He was making good progress, and well on his way towards them and ready to camp for the night...when he saw something, in the distance. Another Bokoblin camp. They always had good stuff, and never really put up much of a challenge. Still, it was a Blood Moon night, and starting a fight so soon when that was on the horizon probably wasn’t a great idea. So, deciding he would absolutely raid them in the morning, Link went to bed, starting to feel in control of his life for the first time he could remember.

Of course, no matter the incarnation, it seemed as though the Golden Goddesses themselves had it in for the hero. If things were going too well for him, that was going to change. Perhaps it was a strange gesture from the absent Goddesses themselves. Perhaps it was caused by some strange combination of ancient Sheikah technology and magic. Or...perhaps whoever’s Nintendo Switch was connected to this particular universe had some strange glitch mess around save data between Breath of the Wild and Ring Fit Adventure. The world may never know. All anyone would know was that, in the middle of the night as Link slept, the Master Sword he loved so much was suddenly replaced by another magical artifact. He would only realize this fact much, much later.

Once the sun had risen, and Link groggily woke up, made a campfire, and cooked himself some scrambled eggs for breakfast, he was ready to take on the Bokoblin encampment, unaware that his trusty weapon was no longer what he thought it was.

Sneaking up on the monsters wasn’t hard. Bokoblins were not the best watchman, after all, and Link had built up quite a bit of practice. The encampment was built into a natural depression in the ground, surrounded on rocky cliffs on three sides, but there were plenty of trees and bushes to hide behind on the trip down the slope. The nearest Bokoblin was a sentry quite a while away from the others of his kind, but he could still shout if given the opportunity, and call the entire camp to attack Link.

Once Link managed to sneak behind the sentry and get within striking distance, he reached back to where his Master Sword should have been, and prepared to strike the beast. But the object he grabbed was no sword, and the second his hand made contact with the Bokoblin, things seemed to change.

All of a sudden, Link and the Bokoblin where facing each other, about thirty feet apart, in an area similar to where he’d just been that wasn’t quite the same place. Not only that, but he was holding in both hands now the object that had been with him. It was some sort of ring, though it almost had the strange techno-magical look of Sheikah technology. Inside the ring there appeared to be orange energy. “Wow, you’re looking different today Lily!”

Confused as to where the voice was coming from, Link looked around before settling his gaze back on the ring. At the top of the item there was a small head, and it appeared that it had been who spoke to Link. Then, the warrior noticed the Bokoblin wasn’t moving, just kind of standing in place, staring at Link. Confused, Link looked at the strange head and asked it what was going on and who it was.

That made the small head laugh. “What do you mean, Lily? It’s me, your pal Ring! As for what’s going on, isn’t that obvious, we’re in a Fit Battle!” The head twirled around the length of the ring to look over at their foe, and Ring said, “Hmm...I’ve never seen anything like that before. Dragaux’s corruption really does a number on things, huh?”

At this point, Link realized that something was clearly wrong. Most likely, he guessed, this Ring had mistaken Link for his master, ‘Lily’. They were in some kind of fight right now though, so it wasn’t really the time to correct him. Instead, Link just asked what he had to do to win this ‘Fit Battle’.

“Lily, did you hit your head? You’ve done plenty of these already!” Link was starting to find Ring’s high-pitched voice annoying, and something about that felt oddly familiar. A companion was an aggravating high-pitched voice...maybe something he’d forgotten with his amnesia? Still, Link gestured at the enemy, and Ring huffed. “Okay, okay, I’ll do the tutorial again.” From there, Ring explained how Fit Battles worked. They sounded very odd to Link, but he’d seen so much strangeness already, he couldn’t say it was outside the realm of possibility. Once the explanation was done, Ring suggested, “How about doing a squat? They’re pretty simple!”

Even without his memories, Link knew enough about physical fitness to know how to do a simple squat. He bent his legs while keeping his back straight, holding the position while gripping Ring tightly. Suddenly, Link’s hair started to glow, shifting like a campfire, as warm energy suffused his entire body. He felt it building in him, as his blue Champion’s tunic began glowing orange as the squat charged. Then, Link released the position, standing back up, and a blast of energy shot out of him and hit the Bokoblin. Above the monster’s head, the number ‘70’ appeared, and a little bar under him went from full and green to completely empty. The Bokoblin was suddenly sent flying away, disappearing on the horizon.

What Link didn’t notice was that, while holding the squat, something had changed about him. His legs lost any body hair he’d managed to grow on them, becoming silky smooth, and more mass concentrated on his thighs, giving his legs a feminine curve to them. The battle was over, though, and suddenly Link was standing back in the Bokoblin encampment, and the Bokoblin he’d touched to start it was gone now. Double checking his equipment, Link confirmed he didn’t have the Master Sword any longer, but that it had been replaced with Ring. Annoyed, Link was too stubborn to give this up now, and decided to continue sneaking through the camp, new weird equipment be damned.

* * *

In another world, a land without Bokoblins or Lynel or Lizalfos, another hero was on a quest. That hero as well suddenly found after a night’s sleep her primary form of equipment was gone. Ring, her chatty companion, was nowhere to be seen. This hero, on a quest to fight the evil Dragaux, was the Lily that Ring had mistaken Link for. In some ways, the confusion made sense.

Aside from being a woman, and a redhead, she did somewhat resemble the Hylian hero. Though, only if one had fairly poor eyesight. She kept her long hair in a ponytail, she wore a sweatband around her forehead, and workout clothes tightly clung to her very feminine form. She very much looked like the kind of hero who would fight through exercise.

Which was why it looked so odd to see her now, running around with a sword, chopping up the monsters she’d once just been doing poses at. From the toothy smile on her face, it was evident that Lily was very much enjoying this opportunity to actually knock around the beasties who had been hurting her on the adventure so far, rather than just knocking them into the stratosphere with exercise. From afar, she almost looked like a woman possessed, her blood hot from battle, relishing every swing of the magical sword she now had the chance to wield.

* * *

Things had changed in the hour or so it took Link to nearly clear the camp of Bokoblins, even if he hadn’t realized it yet. His head was too wrapped up in how weird and frustrating Ring was, while slowing coming to appreciate at least some aspect of using it. On the one hand, Fit Battles took a lot longer than the old-fashioned way of doing things. Normally, Link could have easily cleared this entire camp in ten minutes, but the weird pacing of Fit Battles meant he was going to clock in a total of over an hour now.

On the other hand, the exercises were actually kind of fun. Link couldn’t remember ever doing exercises to keep in shape, living in the wild had taken care of that need for him pretty damn well, but it felt weirdly familiar to him anyway. Considering he’d apparently been a knight of Hyrule a hundred years ago, maybe he’d had to do a lot of exercising then?

Perhaps it had been that oddly nostalgic fun that had kept Link from noticing what had been happening to him with each battle. Each time, he’d chosen to try out a different exercise at Ring’s request, and each time that change had affected some part of Link’s body. The Back Press had transformed Link’s arms, making them more slender, his hands more feminine. The Knee-to-Chest pose had hit his entire torso, thinning out his shoulders, cinching in his waist, flaring out his hips.

For this last Bokoblin, the one guarding the camp’s chest, Link found it had a much larger HP bar than the others, so he asked Ring what the best move to beat it in one hit would be. Link didn’t notice how higher-pitched his voice was as he asked.

“You’re sounding more like yourself now, Lily!” Ring said cheerfully. “This one looks like the boss, so do a Tree Pose to assert your dominance!” The Ring laughed, as though it had told a very clever joke.

Link was about to ask exactly how one did a Tree Pose, only for him to realize that he did somehow know it. Holding both hands together and lifting one leg, Link held the pose, energy filling his body once more, until he unleashed it on the Bokoblin, sending it flying away in the process. This must have been a pretty powerful attack, because it did far more damage than any other so far, namely over 200.

It was also the most transformative attack so far. As the battle ended, Ring shouted “Level up!” and Link returned to the camp, now the sole surviving creature there, the changes began to take effect for the last time. His hair grew out longer, tying itself into a ponytail with a magically created hair tie. Keeping his overall athletic and muscular build, Link’s body finished becoming more feminine in every way. Breasts blossomed on his chest, and the equipment in his groin inverted into something else entirely. His clothing changes as well, becoming a women’s work-out set of a tight sports bra with an exercise top over it and a pair of form-fitting leggings on his lower half. They kept the color of his old clothes, though, that bright blue of his Champion’s Tunic.

Link went to open the chest that had unlocked now that the camp was empty, but as he reached out for it, he noticed for the first time how different his hands looked. Had...had his nails always been that long? Then, Link looked down, and saw what had become of him. Suddenly, Link was even more irate. Not only did he have his prized weapon replaced with that weird ring thing, but it had apparently changed his entire body! Pulling the thing out, he asked it why he looked like this now, and tried to ignore how high-pitched his voice sounded when he spoke.

Ring didn’t seem to understand the problem. “Well, Lily, you weren’t looking right so I started using your Fitness Energy to get you back to normal, and look! It worked! You’ve done a heck of a lot of exercising though, so you should probably rest for the day soon.” With no desire to continue hearing the annoying ring’s chatter, Link put it away in his pack and opened the chest. There was over a hundred rupees inside!

After spending so much of his money on special kinds of armor (which wouldn’t even fit him anymore), Link was nearly broke, so the money was definitely the one bright spot in all of this. Climbing back out of the gorge, he noticed a stable not far away, and now that Link had the money for it, there was nothing he wanted more than a hot meal and a place to sleep where they had an actual bed.

The walk there was weirdly invigorating, and Link tried his best not to notice how his body moved in ways he wasn’t used to as he walked. Once at the stable, Link approached the front desk to ask about a room, only to notice the few people there were giving him looks. For a moment, Link was scared they’d be suspicious of him. A lot of people were in these hard times, especially if he let slip about his lack of memories.

But no, that wasn’t why they were looking. Link saw on their faces the same kind of expression he’d made many times before: attraction towards a pretty lady. Link blushed. Really? They...liked him? Somehow, that seemed to change a lot about how he felt about these weird changes. Maybe it would be nice to be someone everyone liked at first glance? Maybe some of them would pamper him...it was worth a shot, right? With that in mind, Link sauntered off towards what something was telling him was the most handsome man among them, to chat him up and maybe see if he would kindly pay for Link’s stay for the night. After all, Link knew that the best exercises could be done naked, and a fitness partner always helped.


End file.
